During my high school years, one of my favorite aunties had this habit of always asking me and my cousins, “So what is your plan for life?” After getting a response she would then say, “You must always have a plan, because ‘time is like smoke’—when it is blown by the air—it passes, never to be seen again.

Good time management of your life in this world is about having a plan. This simply means that you need to know and decide what you want to attain in life, by when and how. When you plan, you are simply setting a roadmap that will guide you to navigate through life, as you draw closer to attaining your goals.

For example, if you want to buy a house, good time management to help you attain this desire, commands that you should have a good plan. You may want to consider the following things: a) when to start looking for a house; b) how you will pay for the house—how much time do you need to save up for the initial deposit amount, if you are buying by mortgage, or how long it will take you to save the full amount, if you are paying upfront—will it be two, three or five years?; and, c) when you intend to move into the new house.

Planning helps you to adjust your ways of thinking and lifestyle, in order to support you to attain your goals. Just think of it for a moment, if you want to buy a house and you have a plan, it means that you will be careful about your spending, which means that you will start focusing on doing things that will help you to save money. You will also make it a practice to set aside any extra income that comes your way, towards topping your savings to buy the house.

On the other hand, assuming that you do not have a plan, even if you won a lottery of millions of shillings today, chances are high that you will end up squandering the money, and after sometime, you will return to the same state of life you were-in before you won the money. This has happened to many people all over the world, and it is the sad truth.

“So what is your plan for life?” These steps will guide you in setting the roadmap:

• Identify what you want to attain in life. I read somewhere about a guy who was so poor. One day he decided to list 105 things he would do if he had money. The most amazing thing happened to him as a result of making this list. He started changing his attitude towards life, and years later, he was able to attain all the things he had listed down. Planning gives you the zeal for life. It gives you the desire and energy to face the future. It fills your heart with anticipation, because you start believing that your situation will change from what it is now, to better.
• Set a timeline of when to attain what you have planned for. Planning helps you to organize your life, because you are able to identify and eliminate any distractions. This means that you become aware of wanting to do the right things at the right time.
• Revise and update your plan regularly. After sometime you will realize that somethings are easy to attain, while others take time. That is why you should always keep track of your plan and update it on a regular basis. Failure to do so may lead to lose of interest and discouragement. On the other hand, if you keep track of your plan, you get reenergized to do bigger and better things, because life is about growth. Good luck!